The Open BLS de Limoges is the last WTA event of the season. It is a WTA 125 played indoors on hard courts at the Palais des Sports de Beaublanc, and the 2026 main draw runs from 14 to 20 December, a month after the WTA Finals and less than two weeks before the first events of 2027. Ekaterina Alexandrova has won it three times, and Caroline Garcia, Cristina Bucsa and Anhelina Kalinina are among its other champions.
This guide covers the dates and draw, the points, the Off Season rules that decide who can enter, and every singles and doubles champion since the event joined the WTA calendar in 2014. How the category works is in our WTA 125 explainer.
At a Glance
- Category: WTA 125
- Venue: Palais des Sports de Beaublanc, Limoges, France
- Surface: indoor hard
- 2026 dates: main draw 14-20 December; the tournament’s own schedule runs from 13 December
- Draws: 32 singles players, 8 doubles teams
- Champion’s points: 125
- On the WTA calendar since: 2014. The 2026 tournament is the 12th edition.
The Draw
The main draw has 32 players and eight seeds. In 2025 it was made up of direct entries, four wild cards and four qualifiers, and the qualifying draw had eight players playing a single round, so each qualifying match decided a main-draw place. The 2026 qualifying draw has not been published. The doubles draw has eight teams, which means the doubles event starts at the quarterfinals. The entry codes on the draw sheet (WC, Q, LL, SE, PR) are explained in our guide to how to read a tennis draw.
Points
Limoges awards the standard WTA 125 points for a 32-player singles draw with eight-player qualifying.
| Round | Singles | Doubles (8 teams) |
|---|---|---|
| Champion | 125 | 125 |
| Finalist | 81 | 81 |
| Semifinal | 49 | 49 |
| Quarterfinal | 27 | 1 |
| Round of 16 | 15 | – |
| Round of 32 | 1 | – |
| Qualifier | 6 | – |
| Qualifying first round | 1 | – |
The points count in the WTA rankings for 52 weeks, as set out in our WTA rankings explainer. They do not count in the Race to the WTA Finals, which leaves out WTA 125 and ITF results; how the Race differs from the rankings is in our Race to the WTA Finals explainer.
Who Can Enter in the Off Season
Limoges sits in what the WTA Rulebook calls the Off Season: Weeks 45 to 52, the stretch that starts with the week of the WTA Finals. Different entry rules apply to WTA 125s in those weeks.
- Players ranked in the top 50 at the entry deadline cannot enter directly.
- Players ranked 1-20 may not play at all.
- Up to four players ranked 21-50 may play on WTA-approved wild cards, counting singles and doubles together. Each Off Season WTA 125 receives two “WTA 125 Exemption Wild Card” spots for this.
- Every player gets one extra excused withdrawal in singles and one in doubles for a WTA 125 played in November or December.
The rules keep the top 20 out of Limoges altogether and limit the rest of the top 50 to wild cards. Main-draw entries close four weeks before the Monday of the tournament, and qualifying entries three weeks before.
History
The first WTA edition was played from 3 to 9 November 2014 as the Open GDF Suez de Limoges, and the event was later the ENGIE Open de Limoges before taking its current name. It was a WTA 125 from the start. It was held in November until 2018 and moved to December in 2019. There was no 2020 edition.
Alexandrova is the only three-time champion. She beat Caroline Garcia 6-4, 6-0 in the 2016 final, Evgeniya Rodina 6-2, 6-2 in 2018 and Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-1, 6-3 in 2019, all in straight sets. Garcia had won the year before Alexandrova’s first title. Anhelina Kalinina has won twice, in 2022 and 2025, and Cristina Bucsa took the singles and doubles titles in 2023. Elsa Jacquemot has lost two singles finals, in 2023 and 2025, and won the doubles in 2024.
Singles Champions
| Year | Champion | Runner-up | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Anhelina Kalinina | Elsa Jacquemot | 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 |
| 2024 | Viktorija Golubic | Celine Naef | 7-5, 6-4 |
| 2023 | Cristina Bucsa | Elsa Jacquemot | 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 |
| 2022 | Anhelina Kalinina | Clara Tauson | 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 |
| 2021 | Alison Van Uytvanck | Ana Bogdan | 6-2, 7-5 |
| 2020 | Not held | ||
| 2019 | Ekaterina Alexandrova | Aliaksandra Sasnovich | 6-1, 6-3 |
| 2018 | Ekaterina Alexandrova | Evgeniya Rodina | 6-2, 6-2 |
| 2017 | Monica Niculescu | Antonia Lottner | 6-4, 6-2 |
| 2016 | Ekaterina Alexandrova | Caroline Garcia | 6-4, 6-0 |
| 2015 | Caroline Garcia | Louisa Chirico | 6-1, 6-3 |
| 2014 | Tereza Smitkova | Kristina Mladenovic | 7-6(4), 7-5 |
Doubles Champions
- 2025: Bucsa / Zhang Shuai d. Jacquemot / Ponchet, 6-3, 6-1
- 2024: Jacquemot / Rouvroy d. E. Andreeva / Janicijevic, 6-4, 6-3
- 2023: Bucsa / Sizikova d. Kalashnikova / Lumsden, 6-4, 6-1
- 2022: Kalashnikova / Kostyuk d. Barnett / Nicholls, 7-5, 6-1
- 2021: Niculescu / Zvonareva d. Cascino / Ponchet, 6-4, 6-4
- 2020: not held
- 2019: Garcia Perez / Sorribes Tormo
- 2018: Voskoboeva / Kudermetova
- 2017: Savinykh / Zanevska
- 2016: Minella / Mertens
- 2015: Minella / Krejcikova
- 2014: Voracova / Siniakova
The 2025 Final
Kalinina came to Limoges in December 2025 for her first event in six months, after a right-arm injury that had forced her to retire in Bari in June. She beat four seeds in a row: Sonay Kartal (4), Alycia Parks (5), top seed Bucsa 6-4, 6-3 in the semifinals and second seed Jacquemot 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 in the final. Jacquemot had reached the final by beating Anna-Lena Friedsam 6-2, 2-6, 7-5. The title lifted Kalinina from No. 155 to No. 127.
Where Limoges Fits
Limoges is the second of two indoor hard-court WTA 125s in France in December. The first is the Open Angers Loire Trélazé, 30 November to 6 December. The week between them is empty on the WTA 125 calendar, and Limoges is the only event in its own week. Before the French pair come the South American clay-court WTA 125s, including the Cundinamarca Open in Sopó and the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires. After Limoges, the next stop on the calendar is the start of the 2027 season in Australia and New Zealand, which builds to the Australian Open.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Limoges the last WTA event of the year? Yes, on the 2026 calendar. It is the only WTA event in the week of 14 December, and no WTA 125 is scheduled after it.
Can top-20 players play in Limoges? No. In the Off Season, players ranked 1-20 may not play WTA 125s, and players ranked 21-50 need a WTA-approved wild card.
How many points does the champion get? 125 in singles and 125 in doubles.
Who has won Limoges the most? Ekaterina Alexandrova, with three titles, in 2016, 2018 and 2019.
Season Snapshot (as of 7 November 2026)
- Prize money: $115,000 on the WTA’s 2026 tournament listing [UNVERIFIED: the WTA 2026 tournament page lists $115,000; the official 2024 and 2025 draw sheets list €100,000. Confirm the 2026 figure and currency]. In 2025 the singles champion received €13,480.
- Entry list: not yet published. Main-draw entries close on about 16 November and qualifying entries on about 23 November, four and three weeks before the main-draw Monday.
- Defending champions: Anhelina Kalinina in singles; Cristina Bucsa and Zhang Shuai in doubles.
- Tickets: on sale since 8 October 2026.
This snapshot is dated and will change. The career record above does not.
